Critical Capacities and Research for Integrating Nutrition in Agriculture. David Pelletier Associate Professor of Nutrition Policy Cornell University

Critical Capacities and Research for Integrating Nutrition in Agriculture David Pelletier Associate Professor of Nutrition Policy Cornell University

Outline 1. An Explicit Capacity Framework 2. The niche(s) for nutrition-in-agriculture 3. The distinctiveness of interventions in agriculture Household level Policy level 4. Institutional and Individual Capacities for Integrating Nutrition in Agriculture 5. Bringing it All Together 6. A Roadmap for a Regional Capacity Initiative?

We cannot solve today s problems by using the same way of thinking that created them Albert Einstein

What Kind of Problems Are We Dealing With? Simple Complicated Complex The Real World

Institutional and Individual Capacities: An Example from One Country MOA Country CAADP Project Team Component Leads/ Working Groups Food Security & Nutrition Agric Prod Enhancement Support to Commercial Agric Land & Water Mgt Inputs & Markets Coordination Liaisons

A Framework for Capacity Building (from Potter and Brough, 2004) currently, different stakeholders let us say a national government and a development partner (donor agency) may both agree that there is a lack of capacity and agree that investment in capacity building should take place. but they may have entirely different understandings of what is meant by the expression, about how the lack of capacity manifests itself (for example lack of time, not enough power or insufficient know-how ), or about how it impacts the programme under consideration. Consequently, they may have totally different ideas about the remedial action to be taken or the investments that are needed to rectify the problem.

A Generic Capacity Framework: What Precisely is Needed??? Potter and Brough, 2004

A Generic Capacity Framework Potter and Brough, 2004

The Causal Framework for Nutrition Maternal and Child Nutritional Status Outcomes Dietary intake Health Status Immediate causes Food Security: Quantity, Diversity, Access, Seasonality, Own Production, Market Access, Prices Care & Feeding of Children Water, Sanitation, Hygiene & Health Services Underlying causes at household/ family level Women s Status, Support & Resource Control: Workload, Time Allocation, Access to Land, Credit, Education, Extension Services, Child Care Support, Spending Decisions, etc Basic causes at societal level Adapted from UNICEF (1991)

Ag Sector s Primary Responsibility, esp Vuln Grps The Niche(s) for Agriculture Primary Responsibility for Health, Education, Comm.Development, etc Due Diligence by the Ag Sector esp for smallholders & Vulnerable hhs Collaboration Food Security: Quantity, Diversity, Access, and Seasonality, Own Production, Market Access, Prices Integration: Everyone s Responsibility Care & Feeding of Children Women s Status, Support & Resource Control: Workload, Time Allocation, Access to Land, Credit, Education, Extension Services, Child Care Support, Spending Decisions, etc Water, Sanitation, Hygiene & Health Services

Household-Level Nutrition Interventions in Health vs Agriculture Interventions Risk to Households Nutrition in Public Health - Technical or Beh/Social - Largely Standardized Low Nutrition in Agriculture -Beh, Social, Livelihood - Tailored/ contextual Medium to High Intervention Complexity Relatively Simple Complex Delivery Largely Top-Down Participatory

Household-Level Interventions for Nutrition-in-Agriculture A Closer Look

Beyond Household-Level Interventions Policy-Level Actions for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture: 1. The Agriculture domain is diverse and contextual: Diversity and contextuality in: Horticultural crops Grains, roots and tubers Livestock, large and small Fisheries Cash crops, etc Diversity and contextuality in: soils, weather, water, pests markets for land, labor, inputs, credit social, cultural, historical conditions How do we nutritionalize agriculture projects in light of this diversity? What individual and institutional capacities are needed, and at what levels?

Household-Level Nutrition-in-Agriculture: Some Special Considerations 2. Household agricultural practices are complex: Integrated Production-Consumption-Resource-Risk Management Decisions Kaaria et al., Assessment of the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) approach: Case studies from Malawi and Uganda. Natural Resources Forum 32 (2008) 53 63

3. Magic Bullet Evidence Does Not and Cannot Exist: Causal Ag-Nutr Chains are Long, Complex and Indirect HOW FOOD SECURITY PROJECTS CAN IMPACT ON NUTRITION (C. Dufour) IMPROVED NUTRITIONAL STATUS Health and hygiene Adequate food consumption (quantity & diversity) Nutrition education, Market access+ food availability & affordability Nutrition and health education Feeding & caring beliefs & practices Increased household food availability and access throughout the year Increased purchase of diverse foods Access to land, water, livestock, labour, technology, knowledge Nutrition education, Food storage, preservation and processing, Increased production of diverse foods Sale of food products Commercial viability of inc. generation activities Increased income Other expenses, debt ASSET BASE /CONTEXT: Water; Land ; Livestock ; Agricultural inputs; Access to credit; Education /Knowledge ; Labour / employment opportunities; Access to markets ; Social networks; Security; etc.

Household-Level Nutrition-in-Agriculture 3. Magic Bullet Evidence Does Not and Cannot Exist: Causal Ag-Nutr Chains are Long, Complex and Indirect

Beyond Household-Level Interventions: Policy-Level Actions for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture

Beyond Household-Level Interventions: Policy-Level Actions for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture ***Markets and Food Policy*** Post-Harvest Season Trade Pre-Harvest Season Trade Urban Rural Large Scale Small Scale Large Scale Small Scale Production Distribution & Trade Distribution & Trade

Beyond Household-Level Interventions Policy-Level Actions for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture: 3. Food, Agriculture and Economic Policies can have potent effects, but in different ways for different groups: Trade Subsidies Market development Wages Land policies Consumers: urban/ rural, market integrated or not Producers: large/small, net producer/consumer Landless, HIV-affected or female-headed households Seasonal availability, access, price Grains vs vegetables vs animals vs fish How do we nutritionalize these policies? What individual and institutional capacities are needed?

Diversity -- Contextuality -- Complexity -- Long Causal Chains --Evidence Gaps These Special Considerations Force Us to Rely Upon For HH-level Interventions: Local/ contextual Iterative, Participatory, Learning by Doing Approaches For policies: State-of-the-art knowledge, skills, guidance and tools for ex ante food policy analysis, real-time monitoring and regular evaluation For HH Interventions and Policies: 1. Sound principles (rather than evidence ) re. the nature of ag-nutr linkages 2. Integrative assessment and analysis (food, health, care, gender, etc) 3. Contextual knowledge and assessment (local to national levels) 4. Experience (local, national and regional)

Institutional and Individual Capacities for Integrating Nutrition in Agriculture

Capacity-Related Questions 1. Who should lead the Fd Sec/ Nutr Component? 2. Do they have the capacity? 3. What kind of capacities do they need? 4. How can they access it? 5. Can they succeed on good will alone? 6. If not, what authority, mandate etc. is needed to ensure the other teams will implement nutrition-sensitive policies and programs? 7. What kind of capacities or assistance do each of the other Components/ WGs need? 8. How should this articulate with the national multisectoral coordinating committee? 9. How will each of these Working Groups articulate with the traditional MOA structures? (planning, operations, M&E, finance, etc)

Bringing it All Together

Functional Capacities (for individuals and institutions) 1. Operational Capacities (hard skills) Assessment and analysis (national to local) Access to knowledge and experience (global, national, regional) Plan and design policies and programs (collaboratively) Prepare costed investment plans based on Results Frameworks Implement & manage policies and programs (collaboratively) Monitor, Evaluate and Adjust (national, project-level, local) (collaboratively)

Functional Capacities (for individuals and institutions) 2. Strategic Capacities (soft skills / people skills) Collaborative leadership visioning, strategic planning, consensus-seeking Advocacy, strategic communications, media engagement Commitment-building, coalition-building, relationship management Conflict management Resource mobilization Anticipate and respond to recurring challenges and opportunities Strategic oversight and management of the national nutrition agenda Within MOA And Multisectorially

Functional Capacities (for individuals and institutions) 3. Research Capacities (hard skills) Formative, operations and evaluative research (qualitative and quantitative) Community trials of food security and nutrition intervention models among smallholders Innovative and effective models for integration and scaling up

Research and Training: Paradigm Shift Needed The Conventional (discipline-based) Approach Nutritional sciences: chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, metabolism, physiology, food composition, dietary assessment etc. The Problem/ Program/ Policy Oriented Approach Operational capacities for HH and Policy Interventions Strategic capacities Formative, operations, evaluative research Integration and Scaling Up

The Capacity for Capacity Building *** Out of the Box Thinking Needed *** Operational capacities pre-service and in-service Strategic capacities pre-service and in-service Research capacities pre-service and in-service At national, project and community levels What orgs can strengthen each? national, regional, beyond NGOs, Management Training Centers, Private Sector, Universities? What modalities are appropriate? Short-term, On-the-Job, twinning, coaching, interning, counterparts, etc Regional Communities of Practice Curricular reform at universities Incentivized Collaboration in curriculum development (practitioners & academics)

A Roadmap? Organize a regional and country-specific capacity assessment (similar to the WAHO/UNICEF/HKI assessment re. public health nutrition) 1. Identify high level champions from the region and beyond 2. Seek govt and donor interest and endorsement early 3. Consult functional frameworks and checklists (annexes here) in designing the assessmentidentify local, national, regional or global institutions currently or potentially able to lead or support each function 4. Distinguish short, medium and long-term needs and options 5. Quantify the human and institutional resource needs and gaps 6. Create strong mechanisms for accountability and sustainability 7. Seek support as a region, to capture synergies, complementarities and lobbying power

Merci!

Extra slides

A Further Checklist: Nine Individual and Institutional Capacities 1. Performance capacity: Are the tools, money, equipment, consumables, etc. available to do the job? 2. Personal capacity: Are the staff sufficiently knowledgeable, skilled and confident to perform properly? Do they need training, experience, or motivation? Are they deficient in technical skills, managerial skills, interpersonal skills, gender-sensitivity skills, or specific role-related skills? 3. Workload capacity: Are there enough staff with broad enough skills to cope with the workload? Are job descriptions practicable? Is skill mix appropriate? 4. Supervisory capacity: Are there reporting and monitoring systems in place? Are there clear lines of accountability? Can supervisors physically monitor the staff under them? Are there effective incentives and sanctions available?

Nine Capacities: A Checklist for Capacity Building 5. Facility capacity: Are training centres big enough, with the right staff in sufficient numbers? Are staff residences and meeting facilities sufficient? Are there enough offices, workshops and warehouses to support the workload? 6. Support service capacity: Are there laboratories, training institutions, vet services, supply organizations, building services, administrative staff, research facilities, quality control services? (Could be in the public, private or NGO sectors) 7. Systems capacity: Do the flows of information, money and managerial decisions function in a timely and effective manner? Can purchases be made without lengthy delays for authorization? Are proper filing and information systems in use? Are staff transferred without reference to local managers wishes? Can private sector services be contracted as required? Is there good communication with the community? Are there sufficient links with NGOs? 8. Structural capacity: Are there decision-making forums where inter-sectoral discussion may occur and corporate decisions made, records kept and individuals called to account for non-performance? 9. Role capacity: Have individuals, teams and structure such as committees been given the authority and responsibility to make the decisions essential to effective performance, whether regarding schedules, money, staff appointments, etc?

Participatory, Contextual, Integrated and Iterative Agricultural Change and Local Capacity Building: One Approach (among many) Kaaria et al., Assessment of the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) approach: Case studies from Malawi and Uganda. Natural Resources Forum 32 (2008) 53 63

Kaaria et al., Assessment of the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) approach: Case studies from Malawi and Uganda. Natural Resources Forum 32 (2008) 53 63

MAINSTREAMING NUTRITION WITH AGRICULTURE IN UGANDA Uganda National Academy of Sciences, 2011

Level Function Nutrition Sensitization National Policy makers Regional Operational Skills Strategic Skills Ag Planners Ag Managers Ag M&E Researchers Policy Makers & Sr. Admin Ag Managers Ag M&E Researchers District Sr. Admin Community Who Needs What Capacities? (may apply to Govt, NGOs, Donors) Ag Managers Ag M&E Ag Extension workers Leaders Formative, Operations, Evaluative Research

Household-Level Nutrition-in-Agriculture: Some Special Considerations 2. Household agricultural practices are complex: Gender